Manchester United vs Arsenal match report: Marcus Rashford on the double again to deal Arsenal major title blow

Manchester United 3 Arsenal 2

Marcus Rashford (centre) wheels away in celebration after making it 1-0 (Getty)

For Arsenal, Old Trafford is the cruellest ground. They may have won the title here 14 years ago but too often this corner of Manchester has turned into a barren, spiteful piece of earth.

On the same day Liverpool were engaged in a League Cup final, Arsenal came to Old Trafford in 2001 and conceded six. They played so badly that Igors Stepanovs, who had been humiliated by Dwight Yorke, was in tears in the dressing room. A decade later, they conceded eight. This was a far worse result.

Here, Arsenal were facing a team Louis van Gaal had scraped together on a ground where he had recently lost to Norwich and Southampton, also just over a week after the Manchester Evening News had called for his dismissal. By any measure of logic Arsène Wenger ought to have taken a crushing revenge.

The Arsenal manager knew that Michael Carrick and Daley Blind would be at the heart of Van Gaal’s makeshift defence and Wenger selected a side that was big on firepower and pace – Mesut Özil, Danny Welbeck, Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott.

Van Gaal commented that Arsenal had created more chances in the 2-0 defeat to Barcelona on Tuesday than they did here and, once more, Wenger sat in Old Trafford’s press room attempting to explain away a defeat. Once more a title that seemed so obviously his is sliding away as winter turns to spring.

This has been a week that has been true to the finest traditions of Manchester United. They had faced oblivion against FC Midtjylland and come back from the precipice because of performances by young footballers they had bred themselves.

After his two goals on Thursday night against Midtjylland had sent United through to a first European tie against Liverpool, there were those who said Marcus Rashford’s debut was the best since Wayne Rooney announced himself at United with a hat-trick against Fenerbahce.

Rashford’s four goals in his first two matches eclipse even that. Rooney was already the best and most exciting young footballer in England when Sir Alex Ferguson paid £24m for his services in 2004. Before last Thursday, Rashford had played a couple of matches for United’s Under-21s. When asked to describe his feelings after the match, the 18-year-old kept repeating the word “crazy”. It was, he said, too much to explain. Wenger’s defenders might feel the same.

United’s first two goals were made by footballers brought up in the North-west. Jesse Lingard, from Warrington, delivered a superb cross that Gabriel, not for the first time, made a hash of clearing. It fell to Rashford, who grew up in Wythenshawe, a large estate not far from Manchester Airport. Rashford’s finishing was as clean as it had been on Thursday.

Three minutes later he and Lingard did it again. Aside from Lingard’s cross, the key to United’s first goal had been Walcott’s loss of possession in midfield. Their second sprang from Arsenal allowing Guillermo Varela to drag a ball back when it seemed to be going out of play.

He played it back to Lingard, who floated over a cross. Rashford met it with a close-range, downward header and United, astonishingly, were two up. Wenger sat with his arms folded staring unblinkingly into the distance.

Perhaps because he had come from nowhere, Arsenal’s defence appeared to have very little idea how to handle Rashford, who played with the freedom and beauty of the very young. Before he scored, Rashford had tried to cut inside between Hector Bellerin and Gabriel, who brought him down. Blind rushed over to implore Craig Pawson to give a penalty.

There were a few tufts of grass in it but the referee had made a superlative call. Memphis Depay loosed off a shot that would have been reasonably straightforward for Petr Cech had it not come through a thicket of legs.

Rashford had a hand in what proved the third and decisive goal after Danny Welbeck, another young North-west footballer, brought up in inner-city Manchester but playing for Arsenal, had pulled one back.

Facing Gabriel and Nacho Monreal, Rashford turned full circle before playing the ball out to Ander Herrera, whose shot, firmly struck, hit Laurent Koscielny’s outstretched chest and left Cech hopelessly placed. Wenger was no longer impassive. He stood and gestured wildly.

United’s defence was never entirely secure and was more vulnerable because Carrick and Varela were both booked early. Just before the interval, Marcos Rojo allowed Welbeck, who was starting his first Premier League game since last March, to get to a free-kick first and, suddenly, Arsenal were back in match they should never have lost control of.

Wenger sent his team out early for the second half, which was a sign of their , while Lee Dixon, who had been with Arsenal when they won the title at Old Trafford in 2002, tweeted: “This is it. The season right here right now in 45 minutes. Man up.”

They did but not by enough and soon they were 3-1 down. Then came a cross from the right into the one part of the stadium lit by fierce, bright sunshine. Welbeck’s shot was brilliantly blocked by David De Gea and flew out to Özil, who drove his shot hard into the ground and into the net.

There were to be no more goals but some of the old spice had returned to this fixture. There were some vile chants about Wenger from the Stretford End and then when Aaron Ramsey fouled Herrera it provoked a mêlée of players.

Moments later, Van Gaal leapt to his feet, marched to the touchline and hurled himself to the ground in front of the fourth official, Mike Dean, still clutching his notebook and protesting about some Arsenal theatrics. Given that Van Gaal never leaves his seat, it was extraordinary and provoked the long-forgotten chant of “Van Gaal’s Red Army”, a song you never thought to hear again.